Tag: ESPN College GameDay

ESPN College GameDay heading to Deion Sanders, Jackson State

ESPN College GameDay will be at Southern-Jackson State on October 29

The Deion Sanders impact at Jackson State is in full force.

The Tigers are 7-0, 4-0 in the SWAC’s East Division, and heading into a rivalry game against Southern, which is 5-2 and leads the conference’s West Division at 3-1.

The game will attract national attention and the hype will be on Saturday as ESPN has announced College GameDay will be heading to Mississippi to set the scene.

Photo Gallery: College GameDay plus a win equals a special day for Duck fans in Eugene

Photo Gallery: It was a long day for the Oregon Ducks fans, but it was worth it with the 45-30 win over Chip Kelly and the Bruins.

Many Duck fans are going to sleep very well Saturday night.

A lot of them showed up at 4 a.m. for ESPN College GameDay and left Autzen Stadium 12 hours later with an Oregon 45-30 victory over UCLA.

It was a banner day in numerous ways with Lee Corso’s reunion with the Duck to Sabrina Ionescu being back on campus to be the guest picker. Former coach Chip Kelly was also in town, but he was on the opposite sideline as the coach of the Bruins.

Obviously, the highlight of the entire day was Oregon managing to get its biggest win of the Dan Lanning Era to date with the win over No. 10 UCLA. With the victory, the Ducks are 6-1 overall and 4-0 in conference play. They’ve also asserted themselves as the favorite to win the Pac-12.

Here are the photos that illustrate the long, but successful day in Eugene.

Photos: Massive Oregon crowd welcomes ESPN ‘College GameDay’ in Eugene

A live duck and the GOAT Sabrina Ionescu walk into a bar. Lee Corso is also there. What happens next?

For the first time since 2018, ESPN College GameDay was in Eugene and the entire thing, from the fans to the signs to the actual show, didn’t disappoint.

Oregon fans showed up around 4 a.m. to be ready for the 6 a.m. broadcast as the big matchup between No. 9 Oregon and No. 10 UCLA was featured. It also had a reunion between Coach Lee Corso and his favorite mascot in the country The Duck. It also seemed like a goodbye of sorts as Corso is expected to retire at some point soon. At 87 years old, this might have been his last trip to Eugene.

Oregon legend Sabrina Ionescu was the guest picker in the show’s last segment, which also had a live duck on stage. In the end, Corso put on the Duck mascot head alongside his buddy as he picked the Ducks to defeat the Bruins to everyone’s delight.

Sabrina Ionescu makes her picks on ESPN’s College GameDay

You knew Sabrina wasn’t going to pick against the Ducks…what about Lee Corso? See how the GameDay crew picked on Saturday.

The center of the college football world was in Eugene, Oregon on Saturday, with ESPN’s College GameDay in town for the top-10 showdown between the Oregon Ducks and UCLA Bruins.

It featured the return of Chip Kelly, a matchup between two Heisman-worthy quarterbacks, and a game that will likely decide which team gets into the Pac-12 Championship at the end of the year.

To help make this a special day, ESPN brought on Oregon legend Sabrina Ionescu to be the guest picker at the end of the show. As a WNBA All-Star and the greatest women’s basketball player in Oregon history, Ionescu holds the heart of Eugene in her hands, and had the crowd going wild on Saturday morning.

Here’s how she and the rest of the GameDay crew picked the college football slate of games:

The best Oregon Ducks signs at ESPN’s College GameDay in Eugene

Oregon Duck fans definitely brought the sign game on Saturday or College GameDay.

One of the best traditions going in all of college football is ESPN’s College GameDay traveling to certain cities and campuses each and every week, setting up shop for one of the top games of the weekend.

Even a greater tradition if the fans showing out with the most creative signs they they can cook up in the days leading up to it. They often poke fun at the visiting team, and are waved wildly all morning in hopes of gaining some air time.

Did you see any signs you particularly liked on Saturday morning in Eugene, with GameDay in town for No. 9 Oregon vs. No. 10 UCLA? We’ve got a few that caught our eye…

Sabrina Ionescu was the logical choice to be guest picker on GameDay

ESPN’s Rece Davis explains why picking Sabrina Ionescu to join “College GameDay” on Saturday was a lay-up choice.

Not many people are going to tell Sabrina Ionescu that she’s wrong about anything, but around 8:50 a.m. PDT, odds are coach Lee Corso will hold a pencil up and say, “Not so fast my friend!”

It’s all part of the show as the greatest women’s basketball player in Oregon history will be the guest picker when ESPN “College GameDay” broadcasts from Eugene.

In the last segment of the three-hour show, ESPN brings out someone significant to the host school to pick around 10-15 football games from around the country alongside Corso and the rest of the cast.

In the case of Oregon, Ionescu was the logical choice, according to host Rece Davis.

“There are four or five people that I think that Oregon sports fans revere,” he said. “Whether it’s Steve Prefontaine, Phil Knight for obvious reasons, Marcus (Mariota) and Sabrina (Ionescu). She’s a big star, very important in Oregon culturally, and she wanted to do it. She’s a big part of this. She’s a big star, and I think it’s a great opportunity for us. We’re happy to have her.”

This will be the first time Ionescu will play this particular role, and she’s obviously very excited to be a part of the show.

We all know the current WNBA star can dish assists on the basketball floor, but how well does she know college football? For those assuming she knows very little …

Not so fast my friend!

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ESPN’s College GameDay crew weighs in on No. 9 Oregon vs. No. 10 UCLA

Does winner of Oregon vs. UCLA go to the CFP? What helped turn Bo Nix’s career around? ESPN’s Rece Davis and David Pollack weighed in.

The eyes of the college football world will be fixed on Eugene this weekend as the No. 9 Oregon Ducks get set to host the No. 10 UCLA Bruins in a top-10 Pac-12 matchup that will go a long way in determining the power balance out west, and could potentially play a role in the College Football Playoff, as well.

In order to properly set the stage for this matchup, ESPN sent their flagship show, College GameDay, to Eugene to give the right publicity to the game.

While the set is going up on Oregon’s campus media members were allowed the opportunity to speak to some of the members of the show and get a feel for their early thoughts on the matchup. Here are some of the best quotes that we got on Friday:

‘One of our favorite stops;’ ESPN GameDay crew is more than happy to be back at Oregon

“It’s a different vibe.” The ESPN “College GameDay” crew has a home in Eugene, and they’re happy to be back.

Once upon a time, Eugene seemed like the second home to the ESPN “College GameDay” cast and crew. About a decade ago, the sport’s premier pregame show made at least one trip, if not more, to Eugene to cover a big Oregon Ducks football game.

But it has been five years since the Ducks played a game big enough to warrant the show being on the Oregon campus. Host Rece Davis says it’s good to be back.

“It’s one of our favorite stops to come for ‘College GameDay,’ ” Davis said on Friday. “It’s been a few years since we’ve been here and you know to have (the Ducks) in the top 10, big game like this, and I love doing the show in the dark in the morning. It’s a unique setting and the Oregon fans and students always come out and support the show. So it’s great to be back. We’re looking forward to the show. Looking forward to the game on Saturday.”

That game Davis was speaking about is No. 9 Oregon hosting No. 10 UCLA in what is the Pac-12 Game of the Year thus far. Ironically, it was Chip Kelly’s Ducks teams that made “College GameDay” visit Eugene so often. Now he brings his Bruins (6-0) into Autzen Stadium for a 12:30 p.m. PT kickoff.

But the festivities will kick off way before that. GameDay comes on the air at 6 a.m. local time, and the fans will definitely be out with their signs.

“It’s really gratifying because we feel like we have a responsibility to the sport and to the show to uphold a certain standard,” Davis said. “We understand that. Yes, they’re coming here to see the show, but they’re also coming here because they’re proud of their school. And they’re proud of their team and they want to show their support. So we’re glad to be able to tap into that and to see them come out in the wee hours although you know, college kids that age can keep some unique hours. So maybe it’s not early to them. Maybe it’s just late, so either way, we’re happy.”

Co-host David Pollack, a former Georgia linebacker, has been on GameDay for the last decade, and he’s noticed the show seems to attract a different sort of crowd when they’re in Pac-12 country.

“It’s definitely different. It’s a different vibe,” he said. “I remember when I first started years and years ago, going to USC and like this (Oregon), just shows when you’re starting at 6 a.m. it’s just a different vibe. It’s not the same obviously as it would be on a lot of campuses, but I remember we get over here and the kids are already here and you know, they’ve been up all night. You know, there’s plenty of extracurriculars going on, and it’s just a different kind of crowd.”

Although coach Lee Corso wasn’t available for interviews because of a recent illness, Davis said Corso is in town and looking forward to reuniting with an old friend.

“He’s not missing this with his affinity for the Duck. He’s here to have a reunion with him,” Davis said.

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Oregon fans react to Sabrina Ionescu being named guest picker for College GameDay

How many Sabrina jerseys will be in the crowd at GameDay now?

Ever since it was announced that ESPN’s College GameDay would be coming to Eugene for the matchup between No. 9 Oregon and No. 10 UCLA, the Ducks’ fanbase has been pretty vocal about who they wanted to be named the celebrity guest picker that was featured on the show.

We offered a number of options, but there was nobody that ever made a dent in the lead that Oregon legend Sabrina Ionescu had in the minds of fans.

So the Duck’s crowd should be happy to see that GameDay announced on Thursday morning that Ionescu would be the guest picker, joining the crew at the end of the show to make her picks for the day of games. It became apparent on social media that this was the right choice. Here are some of the best reactions from the day:

Sabrina Ionescu announced as guest picker for ESPN College GameDay

Fans asked for it, and ESPN delivered. Oregon legend Sabrina Ionescu will be the guest picker for College GameDay this weekend.

The fans were calling for it, and the decision-makers at ESPN delivered.

Oregon Ducks legend Sabrina Ionescu has officially been announced as the guest picker for ESPN College GameDay this weekend before the game between the No. 9 Oregon Ducks and No. 10 UCLA Bruins.

GameDay will be returning to Eugene, featuring the Ducks for the 26th time in its history. The Ducks are an impressive 15-10 in those games where Lee Corso is in attendance.

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After the initial announcement that GameDay was coming came out on Saturday night, fans quickly debated online who should be the guest picker for the Ducks. It usually is someone with a close tie to the home team and has a big enough fanbase that will draw passion from the crowd. Ionescu is a perfect fit, having been one of the best players in college basketball history in Eugene, and making waves with the New York Liberty in the WNBA over the past couple of years.

Ionescu was already planning to be in town to host a girls’ basketball camp, so this worked seamlessly.

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